Rules matter, people

Misinformation about our national sport fuels arena temper tantrums

This week, minor-hockey playoffs started in most areas of Winnipeg. As a result, more Winnipeggers will watch live hockey this weekend than at almost any other time in the season.

No one knows exactly who is going to come out on top. One of the great traditions of minor hockey in Winnipeg is that every team makes the playoffs, which creates a world of possibilities. The only thing that is certain is that frequently over the next couple of weeks, we're going to demonstrate our general ignorance of the rules of hockey.

CHRIS GARDNER / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES

Let's admit what's going to happen. Every hit delivered to a player on your team is a penalty, whether it's called or not. And every penalty assessed against your team is a crime against humanity. You will yell at children you don't know who wear opposing colours and assail the character of those unfortunate enough to serve as referees. You will see a conspiracy behind every call, and you might even point an accusing finger at a fan from another team.

Taking a moment away from the zaniness of the arena and the heightened emotion of playoff hockey, are we really helping the game? More importantly, are we really helping our kids, or instilling in them an attitude that will ensure future generations will be just as presumptuous as us?

The rules of hockey are hard to understand, even among a populace immersed in the sport from a very young age. Lamentably, most of our hockey knowledge is acquired by word of mouth from discussions and debates at the rink. Most adults, even those coaching hockey, have never had any formal education in the rules of the national sport.

For this reason, the Free Press, with the assistance of Hockey Canada, has created the Great Canadian Hockey Rules Quiz.

For the record, the rules have changed considerably since they were first devised. The game is faster at all levels, and there is a heightened focus on player safety. The rules are not like a 10 commandments of the game, written in stone and immune to change or challenge. The rule book is a living, constantly evolving document.

Hockey Canada, which publishes the definitive rules of hockey, generally reviews and changes some rules every two years. However, many provinces, cities, and even area associations within those cities, modify the rules even further. The constantly evolving nature of the rules, combined with local and regional preferences, make it very hard for players, parents, coaches and referees to stay current.

Knowledge of the rules was an important underlying issue at the heart of an incident two weeks ago at a Winnipeg arena. It went viral, thanks to a video posted on the Internet. In the video, the parent of a 15-year-old player erupts after his son is penalized for a hit that resulted in contact with a much smaller player's head. The father is incredulous his son would be penalized just because the other player was smaller. The video shows the referee properly applied the new rule for head-shot penalties introduced to the game by Hockey Canada last season.

Todd Anderson, manager of officiating for Hockey Canada, said many adults either watching or coaching hockey have trouble understanding that the rules, and the interpretation of those rules, can be different at different levels of hockey. The rules and interpretations in minor hockey are not the same as in junior or university hockey, and different still than the application in professional hockey.

"It is important to understand there are many different rules or interpretations between minor hockey and leagues such as junior or the NHL," Anderson said. "What you see when you watch the Brandon Wheat Kings play is not the same as what you should expect at a peewee game. But we all pick up on a version of the rules, a stance, and then we believe that is the way the game should be played."

That appears to be why adults will show up at a game involving a bunch of 12-year-olds and howl when a penalty is assessed for a play that would be acceptable in, say, junior hockey, but which is clearly over the top in minor hockey. We simply don't adjust our view of the standards of the game to fit the profile of the participants.

It does not help that certain scenarios commonplace in hockey are not specifically addressed in the letter of the rules. For example, "finishing your check" is a standard strategy at almost every level of hockey once bodychecking is allowed. But what does it mean? How late after a player has relinquished the puck can he be bodychecked?

Talk to referees, and they will tell you it's a judgment call to determine if a player arrives too late to deliver a check. The rule book doesn't actually include the term "finishing a check," even though it's a very commonly discussed concept. It is, simply put, the point at which body contact goes from being a technique for "separating a player from the puck" to a tool of intimidation. It's also a scenario in which it seems a disproportionate number of injuries occur. In this instance, it's not hard to see how the ambiguity inherent in the lack of a clear definition can cause hard feelings, regardless whether a penalty is called or not.

In general, better understanding of the rules should be a benefit for the average hockey fan. Especially if that knowledge is accompanied by a measure of moderation, especially at the lower levels of hockey.

Take the time and do the quiz. Then when you get to the rink this weekend, give yourself an extra second or two after witnessing a collision between two players and ask yourself this pointed question: Do I know the rule?

Look how far we've come

The origin of the rules of hockey was likely early 19th-century Nova Scotia, where a game called "ice hurley" was played. There were no player substitutions, the puck was a block of wood, the net was marked with two stones and goals were signalled by umpires who rang a handbell.

The rules were not well-documented. It is believed they were handed down verbally from generation to generation.

The rules became more formalized when James Creighton, a Haligonian lawyer, engineer and journalist often called the "father of Canadian hockey," held what is believed to be the first organized hockey match in Montreal in March 1875. It employed the "Halifax Hockey Club Rules."

In February 1877, Creighton and his hockey-mad friends from Montreal's prestigious Metropolitan Club published in The Gazette the first formal rules of the game. The "Montreal rules," as they became known, were almost identical to field-hockey rules and quickly became the standard for the game in Canada.

The Montreal Rules of Hockey

1. The game shall be commenced, and renewed by a Bully from the centre of the ground. Goals shall be changed after each game.

2. When a player hits the ball, any one of the same side who at such moment of hitting is nearer to the opponents' goal line is out of play, and may not touch the ball himself, or in any way whatever prevent any other player from doing so, until the ball has been played. A player must always be on his own side of the ball.

3. The ball may be stopped, but not carried or knocked on by any part of the body. No player shall raise his stick above his shoulder. Charging from behind, tripping, collaring, kicking or shinning shall not be allowed.

4. When the ball is hit behind the goal line by the attacking side, it shall be brought out straight 15 yards, and started again by a Bully; but, if hit behind by any one of the side whose goal line it is, a player of the opposite side shall hit it out from within one yard of the nearest corner, no player of the attacking side at that time shall be within 20 yards of the goal line, and the defenders, with the exception of the goal-keeper, must be behind their goal line.

5. When the ball goes off side, a player of the opposite side to that which hit it out shall roll it out from the point on the boundary line at which it went off at right angles with the boundary line, and shall not play it until it has been played by another player, every player being then behind the ball.

6. On the infringement of any of the above rules, the ball shall be brought back and a bully shall take place,

7. All disputes shall be settled by the Umpires, or in the event of their disagreement, by the referee.

History

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